Several years ago--the Summer of 2009--my son and I with some friends rode bicycles from San Francisco to Telluride, CO. On a blog of that adventure I reflected on the trip and the future of America. The financial crisis and our government response to it disturbed me and I wanted to do a book of koans called A Month Across America in which I reflected on the question -- Whither America? I felt something important had been lost with 9/11 and the financial crisis and I wanted the feel of a new more hopeful direction. Obama had tapped this feeling but we live in complex times and it was a little harder to deliver. The idea was I would try and ride 100 miles a day and write a meditation on current ideas infecting, awakening, or even disturbing the rough consensus on American exceptionalism. - Something like, what is the role of religion in America--are we experiencing a New Awakening that is sending us back to fundamentalism in order to join the clash of civilizations or are we joining Europe in the secular modernity project? Now America is going where it will whatever I think but I think it is helpful to have a set of hopeful beliefs about the Future to encourage ourselves and inspire our children. I am not a doom and gloom kind of person and the “End is Near” predictions have been a staple of civilization since at least Paul wrote most of the New Testament. But I do think we have some unique challenges that our leaders do not seem predisposed to tell us.
In the blog I came to the conclusion that we need a New Localism which would be a retrenchment from the growth forever crowd and the globalists. I mentioned 4 issues I thought important: the moribund and maladjusted economy, poor ecological stewardship of our natural world, challenges of peak oil and American identity (immigration) which is really not about foreigners but about citizenship and its responsibilities. We need a Project America. Perhaps conditions now are so complex that leaders’ have as their highest goal not allowing things to fall apart on their watch. This is hardly responsible and not the way clear eyed adults handle real problems. The waste and malfeasance in our political system is debilitating. Billion dollar political campaigns to convey NO relevant information about real directions for the polity are criminal. In fact that is what we have, an unimaginative overclass, fearful of their privileges, unwilling to stand up, say what they think, and lose an election. The vast majority of voters seem more stupefied and inert and may go vote but don’t have any real belief it will make much difference.
So I would like to undertake Project America. There are a number of individuals already hard are work on the new America and I’d like to join them from my little reactionary enclave here in Alabama. We’ll see how it goes.
"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Shantih.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Day 12 - July 11, 2009 (Moab to Telluride, CO)
Ralph was a little miffed that I got up and
rode without him yesterday. I should
have said something but I just wanted to ride early. I think the early morning before dawn reminds
me of the years I spent throwing papers.
A friend and I threw the morning paper from 8th-11th grade and it was a
good money making job that did not conflict with any activities. All the papers had to be delivered by 6 so we
would get up about 4:50AM, roll them, stuff them into a gigantic bag and
then deliver them on our bikes. The
route was about 4-5 miles and I rode A LOT before dawn. My father would take us in the car if it was
below 20 degrees. I love the dawn but don’t like getting
up. So what’s unusual about that? I rarely regret the effort once I am up....
Ralph and I decided to do a little more riding along the Colorado R before heading to the state. Hardy and Daniel were sleeping in so we
left a little before 8 planning to return by 10 or 10:30 to start the ride to
Telluride. Slightly after our left turn
off US 191 we were on a deserted road.
The road I took yesterday (to the right) had many people camping
but we did not see anyone for 10 miles. Then we saw a large group camping at a picnic area and
packing up slowly. Intermittent views of
the river and the ubiquitous soaring cliffs on a flat deserted road make for
ideal biking. Several archeological
areas were noted on car turnouts so we stopped to read the details of the cliff
art. Easter island statues are pretty
impressive. These cliff wall scratchings
don’t look too impressive, more like vandals marring the surface of perfectly good
rock. I have seen a lot better gang
graffiti... But the riding was perfect and we even got a tailwind when we
turned around. A very nice 25 mile
warm-up for the day.
We woke the boys and Daniel was planning to
ride today. We had been up and down US
191 several times and thought it made more sense to drive to La Sal, Utah and
start from there rather than ride up the busy highway at mid-day. It was about 30 miles and positioned to give
us a straight shot into Colorado. This
would be the first time we had ridden off the Adventure Cycling Association
provided maps. The Western Express route
had turned at Monticello to head to south to Delores and we were planning a straighter
shot into Telluride. We unloaded the
bikes at the two building downtown La Sal ( a post office and grocery), stocked
up on Gatorade, and hit the road with dark clouds threatening to the North. We had not seen a suggestion of rain since
Ely Nevada and that was all of about 20 minutes. The rain held off but 5 miles into the ride
we discovered they were paving the road to the Colorado border. They weren’t working but the roads were torn
up, tar was everywhere, and the roadbed was predominately gravel. I had the 35cc tires but Daniel was on the
6-13 with 28cc and Ralph on the Quattro Assi had 23’s. Bummer. Traffic though was non-existent. Vistas of the LaSal mountains were beautiful
to the North where the thunderclouds loomed and the scenery was finally changing
to a little bit more green. We finally
saw a tree! Of course along the Colorado
R there were trees but this was a tree with no visible means of support. You feel proud of this tree like of your son
when he gets a job and doesn’t need money from you to go to the beach with his
buddies. This will be a great bicycle
route AFTER they finish paving it. The
scenery is great. The wind did not seem
to be moving the clouds closer but put a crimp in the MPH. A slow road with a headwind is a grind. We left Utah with no
notice except a new road sign that we were on a Colorado state road. Three states crossed, the destination in
view. The twisting route through
the Canyons opened up into the Paradox
Valley, a gorgeous scene with the mountains of Telluride in the distance.
It was here that we had a minor snafu. We were snacking at the top of the descent to Paradox
when Daniel decided he would head on out because he descended slower. Ralph and I took a minute or two to get ready
and then started the glorious descent through the canyons to the floor of the
Paradox Valley. We didn’t see Daniel up
the road so when we made the final turn we picked up an incredible tail wind. Like in Nevada, what had been opposing us, turned
to our advantage on wide open roads.
Both Ralph and I put our heads down and started pace lining at 30-35 mph
to catch Daniel. We would come up over a
rise and see a mile down the road--no Daniel.
What had happened to him? Was he
trying to stay ahead of us with his new found cycling skills and better
fitness? Had he crashed on the descent
and slid over a cliff? Was he taking a
leak? We should have caught him by now
but we were having too good a time with the tailwind. We finally stopped in Bedrock, figuring he
would have stopped or we would have caught him by now. We grabbed some lunch fixings and Hardy drove
up with the Sag. Had he seen Daniel? No? If
he wasn’t behind us, where was he? We
sent Hardy back up the road to find him.
He found him and the story was that he had made a wrong turn at the base
of the descent. There was a small road
turning left ( I hadn’t even noticed it) that headed to Paradox . No wonder we couldn’t catch
him! Case closed. Paradoxically, lost and found.
At the Bedrock store we met two couples
from Italy doing a mountain bike trip from Telluride to Moab. It was mid afternoon and they were headed to
Moab for the night over the La Sal mountains!
One of their bikes had broken and they were waiting at the Bedrock store
for a tour operator to come bring them another bike. They could not believe how hot America
was! The women looked a little frazzled
as if their dream trip in America was their husbands(boyfriends?) idea and
needed a little more dream and a little less reality right at this moment. Apparently there are hostels in the mountains
for over-nighting and the scenery is incomparable BUT I detected a certain tension, that the ladies
had had about all the riding they wanted, and the guys were talking about
getting to Moab tonight. I could tell
that was not happening except in a car... I didn’t want to mention a brutal
headwind, OUR difficulties on the road(paving project) as well as the fact that
we had skipped the first 30 miles AND ridden on the road! They had just
descended on trails and had a 30 mile mountain bike slog against a brutal
headwind to even get to the canyons that lead up to the La Sal Mountains. We had gone around the mountains which is
certainly longer but climbing over 14,000 foot mountains wasn’t going to be
“easier”. They were going to be sleeping
somewhere besides Moab unless they took a car/truck.
Time to hit the road again. Naturita is
just up the road and joins busier roads.
The Paradox Valley narrows down to urban congestion and soon we are on
Colorado xxx dodging RV’s. It’s only 20
miles to Norwood (uphill) but the bloom is off the rose--we are facing 50 miles
uphill to Telluride--it’s time to quit, put the bikes on the car and start
another adventure. Go to the condo.
Admire the Colorado scenery. Hit
the hot tub and the summer on the slopes in the mountains. This desert crossing is done. The trip is
psychologically over. Time to move
on.
I achieved almost nothing of what I intended to do when I visualized this trip. My "dream" was to ride across the country in one month and every night do a reflection: since 9/11, what has happened to America? The financial crisis? An existential event to me but this entire trip I have seen nothing but Michael Jackson retrospectives. Can he really be the most important person to die this month? We don't seem to have processed the importance of what the government response to the financial crisis has birthed. We are living in a Potemkin village, a make believe world like Truman. I don't know how to get from old world view to new world view but someone in the media or at the leadership level should be discussing it.
The World is in the vise grip of the Limits to Growth projections: Pollution & population Up, Oil and food production-plateau, resources/rate of growth-down. It is time to address IEEE and all I hear are crickets. Same old same old from leadership. Just don't let this sucker go down on my watch and I'll slide out the back, Jack. Perhaps all disjunctive change is like this--a trend for 30 years--a discontinuity--the world is changed, changed utterly. Whether a terrible beauty is born is another question. I feel a certain revolutionary animus but coupled with a palpable inertia. As they say, conditions that can't continue-won't.
I achieved almost nothing of what I intended to do when I visualized this trip. My "dream" was to ride across the country in one month and every night do a reflection: since 9/11, what has happened to America? The financial crisis? An existential event to me but this entire trip I have seen nothing but Michael Jackson retrospectives. Can he really be the most important person to die this month? We don't seem to have processed the importance of what the government response to the financial crisis has birthed. We are living in a Potemkin village, a make believe world like Truman. I don't know how to get from old world view to new world view but someone in the media or at the leadership level should be discussing it.
The World is in the vise grip of the Limits to Growth projections: Pollution & population Up, Oil and food production-plateau, resources/rate of growth-down. It is time to address IEEE and all I hear are crickets. Same old same old from leadership. Just don't let this sucker go down on my watch and I'll slide out the back, Jack. Perhaps all disjunctive change is like this--a trend for 30 years--a discontinuity--the world is changed, changed utterly. Whether a terrible beauty is born is another question. I feel a certain revolutionary animus but coupled with a palpable inertia. As they say, conditions that can't continue-won't.
Day 11 - Moab Meander
Today’s plan was a little
different than usual. We planned to ride
the scenic Utah 128 along the Colorado River, visit Arches National Park, ride to Dead Horse Point, backtrack to
Canyonlands, and then return downhill to Moab.
We planned to hike some and return to the same Comfort Inn Suites before
heading for Colorado tomorrow. This was
the day we wanted “in hand” to explore this area. There are some incredible sights in this area
and we wanted to take advantage of them. Daniel needed
some freedom to explore Moab so Hardy covered Sag wagon duties.
I had the idea, never yet acted on during this
trip, that miles before breakfast were “easy” miles because you could come back, relax, and eat breakfast. I had gotten used to this pattern in preparation for the trip. So I resolved to get up early and do a quick
20 miles before everyone got up. So I
crept out at dawn-rode the 2 miles through the deserted streets of Moab to the
North side of town to pick up the bike path along the Colorado. It runs North East--I wasn’t sure how far. The sun was just catching the top of the cliffs as I rode 9
miles out and back along the river. I
must confess that the Colorado looks a lot smaller and less impressive than our
own Tennessee River but the 1000’ red cliffs give it a lot of panache. The river seems to be swifter, which makes
sense, because it has carved out about all the scenery out here. Camping was prevalent along the river, cars
just pulled over, and a tent perched along the banks. If a permit was required I didn’t see any
signs.... The ride was flat and
relatively cool down in the canyons before the sun rose. I got back to the hotel shortly after
7:00. Our plans today were to have the
autotransporter take us into Arches. We
would then all ride around, explore the Park, take some hikes, and Hardy would
go back at lunch to pick up Daniel. The
entrance is only 4 miles from Moab but the road climbs 2,000 feet straight up
into the Park on a narrow road packed with traffic and RV’s. We had Hardy drop us off for a hike along
Park Avenue while he met us on the other end.
We then drove 5 miles to Balancing Rock where we unloaded the bikes and
explored all the roads in the Park. We
were going to hike to Delicate Arch but it takes several hours and we had left
all but a few water bottles in the car. We
didn’t think a 1 water bottle hike was prudent.
So we rode to the Devil’s Playground (where there was water) and did a
hike into the playground. There are a
good number of people hiking but it is majestic to get up close and personal
with these rocks. I had my touring
cleats and they were fine for walking so I carried Hardy’s/Ralph’s shoes. After a 2 mile hike, we rode back to Balancing Rock, put the bikes
on the car and carried them out of the park.
(As you get closer to the entrance, the traffic is worse on the two lane
road. The shoulder is soft dirt. Perhaps comfortable to fall on but not
conducive to moving over and letting cars pass.)
We picnic’d in the car and then set out for Dead
Horse Point. US 191 North out of Moab is
busy but the turn to UT 313 is a long but not brutal climb with minimal
traffic. It’s 19 miles to the Point but
its worth the climb and heat on the plateau.
Once we made the turn to Dead Horse State Park, we didn’t see any other
visitors. Arches is impressive but why
weren’t there mobs of people at one of the most compelling and impressive
vistas in the country? From the
Point: South- you can see the curve of
the Colorado R entering Canyonlands and to the East--the La Sal Mountains on
the border of Colorado. (Check out the
photos above) . We were awed. We rode back to Ut 313 and headed South to
Canyonlands. Ralph had branched off to
go all the way to the last vista in Canyonlands and would meet us at the Green
River overlook. Daniel was going to be
there with the car. We got just a taste
of Canyonlands before returning to Moab.
A total of almost 100miles today.
The cycling is stupendous. We had
eaten at an Italian place last night so as we ambled through Moab this night we
decided a higher protein fare was indicated--Steak! We did not do any tofu on this trip.....
Burning 5,000-7,000 calories/day you can eat any old non-PC food you
prefer. 7 oz. bag of Chips? Fine- why share? Eat the whole thing. Parenthetically I could add that neither
Ralph or I lost weight on this trip and in fact may have added 2 or 3 lbs. Fortunately I started the trip a svelte 170
and Ralph had lost 20+ pounds. We might still be climbing in the Sierras if we
hadn’t!
So a reflection. Honesty might not be a virtue because Life requires illusion to be
tolerable. If you strip it all down to
evolution and DNA, throw out God, and only believe in what YOU know you’re left with materialism. It’s interesting to keep clawing at the truth
but tiring. Think of Atlas. What a great idea--a man bearing the weight
of the world. Can't put it down. That's us humans--loaded up with responsibility and unable to shirk it. BUT if we imagine an ideal and live for that-presto-saved. Then there are the
butterflies--all ephemeral and perfect- not an idea an “other” so sublime that
any given moment can become perfect. Just this, is never happening again. Every
instant an infinity of possibilities and then--the Real blooms....
I am fond of Stoicism. But is it true? All of us have to make a choice so we should be tolerant of how others approach the problem. Our senses do what they can, they are not definitive of all we need to know.
My desire on this ride was to explore the idea, Whither America? I wanted to reflect on what in retrospect was the American century. It ended in my mind on 9 /11. The financial crisis exposed our most central ideals as myths. I began my professional public policy career in 1974 as an internationalist, a globalist. The more we understood about others and connected with them in meaningful ways, the less likely war and conflict.This idea created the European Union and it created our involvement in almost every country in the world. Suddenly we are in the Age of American Empire and we don't want to give it up. We rule the world with the reserve currency and a military industrial complex that operates in 100+ nations and provides the bulk of "professional" jobs for those still working. China makes everything, we "keep the peace". WE define what the peace is. We are the new Romans. Sadly our time will be up when the Aladdin's lamp of monetary largess cannot produce dollars that the rest of the world will accept. The military industrial complex (MIC) can enforce rules of global order but when we cannot pay the soldiers, the world will go its own way. I try to conceptualize when other countries will no longer agree that the dollar is valuable but I cannot see any other currency that is even as good. I mentioned GOLD earlier in the blog and it is a currency but 95% (at least) of the population has no understanding of honest money. They are content to believe in and use the fiat currency. Who really wants to change? Those who understand, have fiat money, those who have debts have little understanding. I detect no revolutionary interest. I detect no real interest in politics as a solution. The times appear to be a' changing with very little awareness. Everyone seems content to wait for things to get "back to normal". Personally I think it's not happening. The world has broken we just don't know it yet and no one is mentioning what we should be doing about it. We have important issues like environmental stewardship, ecological sustainability, employment in a no growth world, increased displaced populations due to war and climate change, resource limits, and a wishful American exceptionalism mythos that is not helping us address our problems. Conditions are worsening for more people while the rich dither. Those close to me are fine but I worry about what happens when Reality bites....
My desire on this ride was to explore the idea, Whither America? I wanted to reflect on what in retrospect was the American century. It ended in my mind on 9 /11. The financial crisis exposed our most central ideals as myths. I began my professional public policy career in 1974 as an internationalist, a globalist. The more we understood about others and connected with them in meaningful ways, the less likely war and conflict.This idea created the European Union and it created our involvement in almost every country in the world. Suddenly we are in the Age of American Empire and we don't want to give it up. We rule the world with the reserve currency and a military industrial complex that operates in 100+ nations and provides the bulk of "professional" jobs for those still working. China makes everything, we "keep the peace". WE define what the peace is. We are the new Romans. Sadly our time will be up when the Aladdin's lamp of monetary largess cannot produce dollars that the rest of the world will accept. The military industrial complex (MIC) can enforce rules of global order but when we cannot pay the soldiers, the world will go its own way. I try to conceptualize when other countries will no longer agree that the dollar is valuable but I cannot see any other currency that is even as good. I mentioned GOLD earlier in the blog and it is a currency but 95% (at least) of the population has no understanding of honest money. They are content to believe in and use the fiat currency. Who really wants to change? Those who understand, have fiat money, those who have debts have little understanding. I detect no revolutionary interest. I detect no real interest in politics as a solution. The times appear to be a' changing with very little awareness. Everyone seems content to wait for things to get "back to normal". Personally I think it's not happening. The world has broken we just don't know it yet and no one is mentioning what we should be doing about it. We have important issues like environmental stewardship, ecological sustainability, employment in a no growth world, increased displaced populations due to war and climate change, resource limits, and a wishful American exceptionalism mythos that is not helping us address our problems. Conditions are worsening for more people while the rich dither. Those close to me are fine but I worry about what happens when Reality bites....
Day 10 -July 9th, 2009 (Hite Recreation Area-Moab)
The
Colorado River Crossing at Hite is a “camping area” that looks suspiciously
like a boat ramp. It is 50+miles from
Hanksville and another 75+miles to Blanding.
There is a small store open from 8-5 at the boat launch area but it is a
looooong way to a real grocery store and we saw only the one ranger lady
tending the store. We had some supplies and bought only ice the next morning. A
few trailers suggest a “community” but
there is not a lot of activity. Shortly
after we arrived we were joined by two guys from the Rhode Island School of
Design on fully loaded bicycles slogging along for a cross country tour. Our first cyclists of the trip! Brothers in adventure! They pitched their tent in the
dust with us and we were glad to finally meet up with someone doing a cross
country tour. These fellow cyclists were “going our way” and we enjoyed re-living the highs
and lows of the route. They had left San
Fran on June 16th while we had left June 30th.
They were trying to finish the transcontinental ride by September
1. It had been a hot, hot and long day
and they had only their little canteens with a filter pump. We were scarfing junk food and cold Gatorade
while they prepared their whole wheat pasta on backpacking stoves. Self supported on this route would be spartan. We had coolers of cold drinks, flip flops to
walk on the rocks down to the River for a swim and as I said earlier, we
brought too much stuff BUT having a
fully stocked sag wagon is certainly a delight.
I slept completely comfortably all night on
the ground without an air mattress. This might be a comment on the previous
days effort and surely it was the dehydration that kept me from having to piss
at 3AM, which was an unexpected pleasure.
The morning was pristine. No
activity anywhere. I would have expected
a number of early morning fisherman, boaters getting started for a day on the
river, etc. but it was silent, the rocks like sentinels, waiting for the
sun. The tent zipper was loud as I
crawled out. Despite an urgency sending
me to the enviro-porta potty some 1/4 mile away, I broke out the backbacker
stove, screwed on the butane tank, and lit a fire under more than a quart of
water, enough for a LOT of coffee. Then I ambled off for morning duty. Returning, it was time to employ the coffee
press. The boys, like frogs in hot
water, would not stir until the sun got up enough to heat the tent to
unpleasantness. I wasn’t sure about
Ralph. Drinking coffee and watching the
sunrise on the Colorado as the grey cliffs turn fiery was at least as restful
as sleeping. Many mornings we were in
some haste to pack up and move on but today we were headed to Natural Bridges
for lunch and as far to Moab as we could get.
We did not have a schedule. I ate
my cereal and bananas and considered whether it was possible to have come this
far without crash or flat. I was
grateful for our great good fortune. I
have been on club rides of 40 miles with six people and had 2 flats and needed to call my wife to rescue me, so we had been lucky.
We packed quickly and were ready to go by
8. No sign of the Rhode Island School of
Design boys, still asleep. Today's ride would be uphill
to Natural Bridges Nat’l Monument. It
was a beautiful morning and the grade was not bad at all. The boys decided to do some canyon exploring
so it was just Ralph and me on the bikes.
The scenery is pretty but not as dramatic as yesterday, gradually the
vistas open up and we spot the only scenic reference point before lunch,
Jacob’s chair. There’s not a lot to say
about Jacob’s chair. It does look like
an Egyptian throne but I find the slot canyons the most interesting. All of the water is heading to the Colorado
so as we gain altitude, the canyons get deeper.
This area of the country could use a few trees. No shade on this route. We met the boys at the entrance to Natural
Bridges. It’s about 2-3 miles into the
Park so we loaded the bikes and portaged in to do the loop. They had a nice picnic table on the North side of the air conditioned gift
shop so we ate peanut butter/jelly
sandwiches and a bag of
Doritos. I wonder what that red stuff is
on these chips? You can’t get it off
your hands without a scrub brush. This
was the least interesting National Park in my opinion. The previous sights overwhelm the vistas from
the road. If we had hiked it probably
would have been different.
On to Moab! It now was pretty hot so we had the car take
us to the entrance. Half way to Blanding
the descent to the Chisolm Wash is fantastic but the whole way down you can see
the semi-trailers and RV’s climbing the cliff on the opposite side and it
takes away from the joy of the descent knowing you have to go right back up. The interesting rock formations start to
disappear and finally going into Blanding there is just one left, a solitary
hoodoo and goodbye to all that. We join the main
road to Moab and feel like we have returned to civilization. There are actually stores on the road and
traffic. We were more used to occasional
a/c ensconced travelers that blew by like dirt dervishes. This route to Monticello is not fun. We’re tired.
It’s a four lane highway. We pack
it up in Monticello. Time for the
auto-transporter. We’ve done 90+
miles. We have not reserved a room in Moab so we want to go
ahead and get there to find something. I
slept on the ground the last two nights.
I’m thinking of something with a bed and maybe a jacuzzi and bar.....
Comfort Inn has a suggestive name and I’m driving, so I stop. Home for 2
nights. (It does not take us long to
find the pool).
What does it mean to be an American? I envisioned the ride across America as "linking" the disparate parts of America into one thing--a ride, a journey into the future that includes us all. What is the goal? I mentioned a multi-ethnic, eco-sustainable, substantially just "community". But is it an idea, that includes everyone who commits to a unifying idea of America or does it only include the people that currently inhabit the space called the USA? We have these myths of exceptionalism(the indispensable nation), these myths of inclusiveness(give us your tired, your poor..), these myths of freedom, myths of democratic citizenship and membership in the idea of America includes hopeful people all over the world that would like to share in the advantages of living in America. But this idealistic imagining of a mythical America faces the hard task of inclusiveness in a very diverse population. Diversity is typically not thought of as a strength, it could rather be considered a complication of effective citizenship. If different groups are politically struggling for different things, there cannot help but be major conflicts. We seem to be there. Touting our acceptance of each and every minority and losing sight of the whole. Tolerance is a virtue BUT to fail to promote the essential principles of American citizenship leads to chaos.
The problem of course is primary loyalty. We can love all kinds of people and wish them well but there are some groups that are closer to us than others. Our family may have a higher rank order than the national principles of inclusiveness for people different than ourselves. So our ranking of our loyalties puts us at loggerheads. We must be loyal to our God, church, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, local community, state, region, nation, and our moral idea of universal humanity. If we are excessively tribal we claim that others just don't count like "we" do. But again who is we? That is America's problem. Our history has made us E pluribus unum but our politics today focuses on our differences and the adjustment we "should" therefore make to accept other's values. If everyone has a different conception of what America is and where it is going, can we actually become one? Again the idea is, are we melting pot or stew?
The melting pot idea has been challenged by the civil rights movement. We included other Europeans when they gave up their attachment to their home countries: but when it came to Afro-Americans--we balked. Native Indians did not generally want to be like us so we quarantined them and killed them. We(white folks) changed our essential modus operandi for making outsiders --insiders when it came to people of color. We did not want to blend. We wanted them to have their rights but we wanted a certain distance. We wanted our "space". We did not want to accept the responsibility for discrimination: our parents had facilitated what our grandparents had caused and though we did not support the inequality, we were willing to live with it. We did not feel we had influence on the cultural pathology of broken black families during the civil rights 60's. If Daniel Moynihan was worried in the 1950s about the breakdown of the black family it was commonly considered to be "their" problem, not "ours". And now of course drugs and family breakdown affect both the black and white poor today.
So we say E pluribus unum but we mean separate but equal. As a Southerner I will be taken to task for saying that separate but equal can work. It is a real strategy and it can work. The "old" separate but equal was a fig leaf for discrimination but the new will have to be a partnership. Lincoln used the phrase a house divided among itself can not stand and it is a valid metaphor. What he also said was that a bundle of sticks can be broken individually but bundled together cannot be broken. So separate but equal has to work because that is how it is going to be. Groups are going to prefer their own. A global elite can create a real diversity with enough money because they are not essentially dependent upon one another. They are dependent on the money. As long as everyone has the mega-bucks there is a recognized equality. They are, in short, all together - rich. But it is a small minority that can share in this Edenic world. In a low or no growth world--riches are not going to accommodate us to one another. We will have to make and have small belonging groups(communities) and a larger national partnership that sustains everyone's rights. We should celebrate the strengths of individual groups, not undermine them to seek an illusory universalism. We cannot be all things to all people. We can admire and tolerate differences but we cannot be forced to accept them.
I seem to have waded into race baiting waters which I have no real interest in propounding. I have spent a lifetime loving the differences in other cultures and sharing mine. Differences have their own strengths (and weaknesses) so we should be tolerant of all our many failures of inclusiveness but the goal cannot be homogenization in the short(5-10 year) and medium(20-100 year) time frame. Perhaps in the long run. We can get along right now and if we refuse to then we will be forming different political entities to achieve our goals. We won't be talking about "America" anymore.
The immigration problem confounds two issues--how to structure the political interaction of the disparate groups that are currently here and how and how many others to include? If we look at successful multicultural Switzerland it is in the context of different cantons with their own democratic traditions. Multi-ethnic societies have much harder time building political consensus because of the underlying trust issues than more homogeneous societies like Norway or Japan. Multi-ethnic America would require some real sacrificial leadership and I am afraid we have created a leadership elite that prefers its own group rather than the people it is supposed to be representing.
So you will find me painfully torn between the promise of a structured international understanding in something akin to the UN, where differences are celebrated and a true humanitarian universalism is the goal and those completely and unalterably opposed to any such pie in the sky nonsense. Many do not want to lose their group identity. Nationalism is NOT poised to evolve into a more structured internationalism. Nations are breaking up into their ethnic components. The talk is globalism but the trend is localism.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Day 9- July 8th, 2009 (Escalante-Hite Recreation Area)
Today was the greatest day of bicycling in
my life. The most challenging, the most
variegated, and the most stunning miles ever.
The easiest way to describe this ride is to say that it is like riding
on different planets. The scenery
changes so remarkably that it is one breathtaking experience after another. I suppose driving it would be pretty too but
the immersion in the challenge of “getting to the Colorado R” and what you have
to go through to get there, was worth all the cold mornings getting ready. This is a must ride. There are beautiful rides through Oregon and
coastal Calif. The going to the sun
highway in Glacier is breathtaking, Vermont is so warm and inviting with its
little vistas and charming towns, and France is lovely too through Burgundy. This route though is a testimony to the
greatness of the bike as transportation (able to leap tall buildings with a
single bound), and the natural wonders of the American West.
I wish I could have ridden the entire 163
miles but I did not train enough to try it.
We decided that we would auto transport the 27 miles from Escalante to
Boulder, thereby skipping the dreaded “hogsback climb” up to Boulder. The description was terrifying-8 miles uphill
with 15‘ from cliff to cliff -2 lanes of traffic, no shoulders and a 3,000 foot
drop if some RV has nowhere to go. I am
statistically inclined and would attempt it if no one has ever been killed
trying it, but sight unseen I had some doubts.... We left Escalante at 8 after picking up Ralph
and with the sun shining in our face,
this rough desolate country was sublime.
There was almost no traffic so it really is a fine bicycling route. The
hogsback is not completely insane, it looked like you could pull your bike off
the road a couple of feet to allow RV’s to pass without feeling you were
teetering on the brink of a long fall.
But with a modicum of traffic it would not be a comfortable climb from
the Escalante River to Boulder,UT.
We unloaded the bikes in Boulder leaving an
approx 2,500’ climb to the summit. It
was then 100 miles all kinda sorta downhill to the Colorado River. This part of the climb did not feel steep,
perhaps because the vistas are incredible and the landscape has a very Alpine
feel. The higher we climbed the more trees and moisture in the air. It was very similar to our experience in
Great Basin. At 5,000’ it’s blisteringly
hot and dry with chapping winds and then, crossing 8,000’, everything starts to
get verdant. Pine trees and pockets of
cool air in the shade. Its invigorating
and gorgeous looking back over the Grand Staircase . Like a jigsaw puzzle, the sun's angle hides
all the canyons and as the sun gets higher the relief map gets more colorful. What a view from the summit. We met a Harley motorcycle club at the
turnout. We bicyclists are not as
clique-y as the motorized groups. Why do
Hondas, BMW’s, and Harley’s all have their own groups? Is it spare parts or just that the people who
buy the different motorcycles are so different they prefer riding with their
own kind? We Cannondale cyclists can get
along with Serrotta, Felt or Trek folks.
The downhill to Torrey in the coolness was
amazing. Seems like the best place to
live in the summer. Winters are probably
brutal this high. Descending through
Grover we notice a huge rock with an American flag on it. When we meet up with the boys in Torrey, it
turns out they had gone to the base and climbed it. Torrey has a number of vacation homes and
looks like a lot of terrific mountain biking and hiking. We cooled at the convenience store. Fairly active store at the turn onto Utah
24. The guys were enjoying exploring and
did not feel like riding yet. Nothing special for about a mile out of
Torrey-wide open and Nevada feeling and then all of a sudden into these huge
red rock cliffs. The road follows the
base of the cliff for ten miles and then the cliffs turn to sandstone and we
pick up the Fremont River. The road
along the “river” with the barest amount of water has turn outs for historical
markers. Cabins from pioneer days and
ancient cliff art. But its the now white
cliffs and slot canyon formations that just keep getting more and more
other-worldly. We break away from the river
and in a few miles it feels like we are in Arabia-vast sand dunes into the
distance. We pass a couple of
communities with abandoned hotels. It
just feels as if it got too hot and too remote to live here. Tucked between two dunes was a funky looking
restaurant just after Caineville. Not
open. Shade however. Its really cooking now as we roll into
Hanksville for lunch. This is a hot dry
bedraggled looking town. The map says
its 50 more miles to the Colorado R.
Ouch! Not a world class lunch at
the Red Rock Cafe but getting a seat in air conditioning is reward enough.
It is really hot now and doesn’t feel quite
so downhill. A slight headwind
perhaps. This is wide open country with
a few Monument valley-like formations.
I’m getting into focusing on the road 3’ft in front of me or on Ralph’s
wheel. Two lane road is not real busy
but it seems every single SUV or F-110 pickup is hauling a gigantic boat. We have fishing boats in AL. These look like 35’ runabouts with deep V-
hulls. It seems we can see 20 miles and
with the heat blasting down the landscape seems completely devoid of
water. Boats everywhere going and
coming. Every other car has a boat. It does NOT feel like a lake anywhere. Slowly we seem to be heading into canyon
country. The road grows some walls and
in places, shade, as the late afternoon sun can’t quite reach the road. Enough heat has already been applied in my
mind-I can feel it radiating up through my shoes on the downstroke. I have just about had enough fun --but these
canyons are amazing. A sudden turnout
and we have a glorious overlook over the Colorado. We can see our campground below us and the
bridge in the distance. All
downhill. I have had enough. We’ve done 100+ miles through incredible
countryside. Ralph hates to give up a
downhill and pushes on. There are more
givebacks than you would think and a few miles on he calls it quits. Pack up the bikes and go looking for this
camping area.
Just before driving over the bridge we pass
two very tired looking cyclists, fully loaded.
(No, not that kind of loaded)
They are making incremental time.
The Hite recreation area is really a boat launch. Surprise!
No wonder all these boats. Interestingly
once we turn off we do not see any more boats.
There is one boat in the river and one pulling out of the water as we
head to the parking lot at the end of the access road. It looks like a pleasantly lonely spot. Ralph will be forced to camp tonight with
us. I give him the air mattress because
that’s the kind of friend I am BUT I wouldn’t a done it if the dirt wasn’t
pretty damn soft. We go down to the
river to pray (I mean play) and we just chill watching the sun sink behind the
cliffs on the opposite shore.
Nighttime has a full moon. I
thought we’d get some stargazing in but it was pretty bright. The wasted guys on the road showed up for dinner. They left San Francisco two weeks before us and were headed to Rhode Island where they were in school. They appreciated the cooler beers--sorry Mom. Another downside to having to carry everything on your bike. The four boys stayed up playing guitar and
talking. Ralph and I zonked. They didn’t do 100+ miles in withering
heat.....
I have a personal code I live by but I’ve come to feel that it’s a
little threadbare and understated to accomplish much in this world. It is
First, do no harm. Whatever big plans you’ve got in mind consider what could go
wrong and don’t do anything if the
probabilities of harm are too high. It’s
a justification for not doing much I fear.
But in other things, fear of doing harm curtails necessary risk
taking. The ant that follows the trail
finds what has always been found. No risk, no reward. Our willingness to take risks sometimes
actually ADDS to other peoples risk.
Because we are linked social creatures, when we fail, we take out
innocent bystanders. This “collateral
damage” is often thought just an unfortunate accident but risky behavior will
have personal consequences and impact other people. When everyone is doing their own thing -
where is the social goal? Is Adam Smith
right? The invisible hand will create - Society-when each seeks his own? He probably presumed a lot: People would be
honorable and not lie, change would be slow,
religious principles governed everyday life, normal people would continue to want to please God-and the
church would continue to control the rhythm and rituals of life. Commercial life was not as all consuming as it is today.
So those of us who do not dare disturb the
universe-don’t. But by nature I am a
contrarian. You say blue skies ahead-I
say storm warnings. I pull against the
grain. Pride undoubtedly. You think everything is hunky-dory, I say
probably not. I try not to ruin all the
parties I attend but trying to do no harm and being a revolutionary are not
perfectly compatible. Virtue of a
legalistic sort is not sufficient. It
requires a REAL sacrifice. If there is a
heaven and hell, virtue is not really necessary. We can be our flawed selves and get what we
deserve. But if not, Virtue - Honor-
Nobility all require a sacrifice (if we want them). They don’t just show up. What are our American sustaining ideals? Go shopping?(Yes, that will really irritate our enemies) Freedom for all to do what we like? Show me
the money? Christians believe in helping your neighbor and forgiving your enemies. I see bigger defense budgets putting the lie to that.
Human ideals require big ideas, the biggest
idea you can think of and the courage to live in a manner to accomplish
it. I do not want to be an ugly
American, so I’m not pushy. I think a
substantially just, ecologically aware, multi-ethnic democracy would be a
satisfying goal for America. This is an inward not outward focus. How do we include everyone that is an American? If others won’t leave us alone or want to
crash the party we need to be “creative” in our opposition. Brute force in extremis may be necessary
but otherwise a light touch. Get the army
out of 80+ foreign lands. Let others
suffer with their own internal contradictions. A nuclear world is dangerous but we should be resolved to take our warhead count as low as deterrence will allow.
We are currently creating a lot of
enemies. I read that Afghanistan has a
GDP of $12 billion a year (is 10% or 60% of that heroin?) and we are
spending 3 billlion $/month there. Does this make sense? I know if we paid them to be our friends
they’d quit when we stopped paying them but they might remember us fondly. Or was that our strategy all along? What if we sent our new unemployed college graduates over
there to drink tea and see how they could help, like the Peace Corps. Would we make some real friends? How about if
we are so interested in Afghanistan a few American cities adopted sister cities
and sent church groups to build clinics and schools? You say Taliban-I say, see what each town
council there really wants--help them get it.
Greg Mortensen did it and whoever is setting IED’s hasn’t blown up any
of his secular schools..... Sending body armoured teenagers with AR-15's into people's homes has not made us popular. Blow back is coming when we can't afford to pay our enemies to be friends...
Day 8- July 7th, 2009 (Bryce Canyon to Escalante, UT)
I’m looking for one
glorious sentence. And one glorious
ride. So I can repeat them whenever I
like and then go find another to an even better destination. This morning we are going to ride into Bryce
Canyon National Park and check out all the overlooks. Then we’ll head on up the road.
We wanted to make sure we
saw all the sights in Bryce Canyon so the plan was to ride all the way to the
Yovimpa overlook (27+miles) checking out the trailheads and vistas and then
having the car come pick us up and drive back to Ruby’s Inn. Our problem then
was how far to go? Like Nevada, there
are only a few reasonable places to stop.
The biggest problem on this route is the Colorado R crossing at Hite
Recreation Area. It is is the only
stopping place for at least 70 miles each direction. In short we HAD to stop there. (Well we
didn’t HAVE to but I wanted to swim in the Colorado and camp) So where should
we stop the night before? Boulder was 74
miles from Ruby’s Inn with a punishing uphill for the last 18 miles. Escalante was closer but then the next day
would be over 100 miles starting with a brutal uphill. We thought Escalante made the most sense
because we could use the auto transporter to Boulder to start the next
day. Escalante was only 47 miles away,
combined with the Bryce National Park ride, we’d do 74 miles. Great Plan--let’s ride.
Hardy and Daniel camped
but were angry that a lousy spot next to an RV cost $35. Ralph and I stayed at Ruby’s N to do wash,
and knit the raveled sleeve of care. One
of our air mattresses had been losing air by morning, so we donated our other
air mattress to the boys and slept in a bed.
On September 1, 2007 I am
embarrassed to report that I became a “gold bug”. For a long time liberal like myself, it’s
embarrassing. I can’t believe I’ve joined the “frothing at the mouth”
crowd. Gold is just a hunk of metal,
usefully rare. Plutocrats are supposed to be the people that like gold. I just
want my wife and my savings to be worth something when we need them. I’ m also
saddened at how important money is to me.
I thought I was above all those little pecuniary considerations but I am
guilty of caring about all those sweet dreams bundled in bank accounts. Could I blame it on my mother and
grandmother? My grandmother gave me old
coins and a blue collectors album for pennies. She carefully marked how much
each was worth. I looked at a lot of
pennies and gradually realized I wasn’t finding any that were worth more than a
penny. My mother gave me proof sets for
every Christmas and birthday. In inflation adjusted terms they are worth less
than what was paid for them. I was a lackadaisical collector from 1962-1964 and
then suddenly all the old coins disappeared.
There was no point to being a coin collector. My books of dimes, quarters, halves were
partially filled but now you had to go buy them from some store. I gave up on the whole enterprise. I kept getting proof sets from my mom until
2000 when SHE realized the Mint was just another overpriced scam.
But when I realized the
world financial system was going to fall apart, here I was chucking
contributions into my 401-K and by the
time I needed it in 10 years it would be worth substantially less like those
coins. What company made sense to invest
in? What a load of BS this “diversification” mantra is--Everything went down in
2008. Money market funds were at risk
until they were backstopped by the gov’t. These stock mutual funds make it seem
as if it is my fault for choosing an inappropriate asset allocation. They want to know my “risk tolerance” so if
they lose my money it’s my own damn fault. Seems to me a bad recession and
currency crisis will lay them all low.
Bonds? Toast. Deflation then
inflation or the opposite? I didn’t know
but savers have a huge target on their back and are going to get hosed. That
was me and my hard working wife. The only people making money are the people
making money (as in leverage). They are
letting society pay the insurance on the risk. Gold seemed to be a selfish
choice that did not recycle my savings into loans for my community and fellow
citizens. I’d like a local Grameen Bank with a reasonable interest return, not
financing for a shopping center conglomerate that would end up in Chapter 11 or
a CD at 1%. Remember the story of King Midas? His gold lust was foolish. I felt
shallow thinking about gold. I also
didn’t want to be a miser. Misers are pathetic
creatures who count their money and miss the point of life. Money is merely a
tool but instead of encouraging excellence it has become perverted. It’s all that matters. No money means No success.
No dreams.
Well. OK.
I’m guilty. What’s the
solution? The solution is visualize a
local economy and invest your money at home.
Improve your corner of the planet.
The world is flat (interdependent) but it has gone far enough. Its now
time to find a local sustainability model. Time to suck the lifeblood out of
globalization and give up on mutual interdependence. Too vulnerable. It’s not wise to be dependent on people who
don’t like you (or you don’t like). Bring your money home. The sad truth is, before everyone gets rich
enough, we will have destroyed the natural world. Globalization is too complicated. That said I’m not really interested in
returning to the farm or giving up my four day work week BUT what’s got to
change is the structure of our economy.
My town is defense industry based.
Good jobs come from Washington.
We need good eco-sustainable jobs. What the heck are they? There really is a lot that needs doing but I
don’t think it’s selling each other garbage at retail and dreaming up new
derivatives. A new localism is going to
make us a lot poorer. Therefore we need
a social ethos that admires frugality and sacrifice. Success is more like the honey a bee
produces-Extra for the whole society, not the honey you get to eat. Is Anyone
going to work in this society? With
sacrificial leadership - perhaps. With
an “I’m Most Important” mentality, it’s every man for himself--nasty, brutish,
and short. Let us admire farmers,
craftsmen, teachers, innovators, scientists and work toward creating social
eco-capital--the best life as close to Nature as possible. If it’s austere, so be it.
We left Ruby’s Inn smack
into a headwind. It’s a slight uphill
grade to the Park and Visitors center and we were SLOW, even in the
paceline. The traffic is not bad at all
but you can’t see anything from the road.
You have to branch off to each of the overlooks. This entails some elevation challenges, up
and down to get to each of the vistas.
Throw in a steady breeze and our plan looked time consuming. If we all rode to the terminus we’d obviously
have to ride back before starting our ride to Escalante. We’d have already ridden 50 miles in the
Park. So at the half way mark, Ralph
rode back to Ruby’s to get the car and met us at Yovimpa point. We clawed our
way to the Park terminus. Perhaps we should have realized that the word
“canyon” could mean some ups and downs.
When he arrived we were mighty glad to see him although we toyed with
the idea of taking advantage of the
tailwind.....We didn’t. We opted for
lunch at the Lodge. It’s close to the
trails and overlooks and seems to be a fantastic place to stay. We were one of three parties in the large
dining hall and had a great lunch. Load
the bikes and head to the main road for our trip to Escalante.
From the turn at Ruby’s
Inn the road heads downhill to Tropic and the views back up into Bryce Canyon
are stunning. It would be better to be
riding the other direction because most of the vistas were at 4 to 5 o’clock
over your right shoulder. I love these
dusty mesas. We pass the Dixie Forest
but it is not really what I would call a “Dixie” forest. I don’t see any wildlife moving in the heat
of the day. Presumably there are coyotes
but we never see one. There is so much
space. In the Smokies, the kind of
forest I am used to, it is always drippy and you don’t expect to see any
animals because they are smart enough to stay 50’ away out of sight behind a
tree.
I loved Westerns as a
kid. TV shows like Bonanza, Rawhide, and
Have Gun Will Travel. Actually being out
West though makes me realize that these morality plays were fundamentally
flawed. You would always see good guys and
bad guys jump on a horse and ride out of town at a gallop. Where were they going? There is nothing to ride a horse to. When I leave towns on my bike I don’t see any
rivers, wells, shade, water of any kind, nothing to graze a horse. In fact I can often see as far as you could
possibly ride on a horse, to say nothing of getting back without water or
feed. One canteen is not enough to go
from Ely to Baker or Minersville to Cedar City.
In fact there would be no reason to chase the bad guys because you would
KNOW where they were going, the closest water hole. I understand Conestoga wagons with barrels of
water but I don’t see a posse heading out into the desert unless they had a
death wish.
I have spent a lifetime as an internationalist. I took the saying Think globally, act locally to heart. It strikes me that my dream of better international understanding was naive. What has happened is that the elite (1%-5%) in all countries share a global ideology at odds with their fellow countrymen. An Apple executive interacts with the factory owner in Shangai. Their children go to Penn or Cal-Berkeley and join international conglomerates of entertainment, business, and NGOs. The unemployed, unskilled American is "foreign" to the American business executive at his Davos conference and Arizona golf country club. The Chinese businessman has a house in Vancouver. When asked, Americans know that the distribution of income is skewed, what they don't realize at all is how incredibly unequal it is. The richest 1%of the population owns 35% of the assets. The top 10%--73% of the assets. The top 20% owns 84% of the assets. The next 20%-owns 11% of the assets leaving 5% for the bottom 60% of the population. We could say that the interests of the 5% and the middle are not congruent. American "leaders" appear content to be well rewarded facilitators of the status quo.
When I was doing development economics some 35 years ago it was clear that the poor would never catch the rich even with 8% growth rates for the poorest billion and 2% rates for the richest billion. We did not forecast that far ahead because we knew infinite growth was not possible. Limits to Growth had given us 50 years to get our house in order and looking back, we have essentially squandered it. There is no techno utopia for the future, no Jetson future with robots at our beck and call and all receiving a livable wage. The future is the shrinking richer and richer and the majority growing poorer. So what did we international think tank busybodies consider was necessary? Alternative development strategies. We needed to consider appropriate technology for the level of development in each country. We, rich countries, needed to embrace our own eco-sustainable models of future growth and assist poor countries to avoid the mistakes of growth that we had made. The 1960's strategies of import substitution and export led models had a tendency to increase inequality. The foreign aid we lobbied so hard for was creamed by the elites in poor countries and the big UN projects subsidized business and increased indebtedness that we can now see impoverished even more. Internationalism today has been co-opted by business as a way to access resources. And to protect it we have invested heavily in militarism. The blow-back from selfish policies to establish a world spanning empire will be painful for us "innocent" American Exceptionalists. So globalism is gradually becoming a fetter for citizens in ALL countries. It appears that the game is "pay to play" and fewer are being given the wherewithal. If everything can be monetized then we are all dependents on the numbers in our bank account and the permissions of our governments to access the "good life".
Polygamy Porter-one is not enough.... |
The road to Escalante passes slot canyons and twisted sandstone piles of rock. We are looking for a campground a mile or so outside of town and find it tucked next to a cool refreshing lake. The boys dive in while I take Ralph into town to find an hotel. We will be back for dinner.
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